St. Landry democrat., 1887-10-01

Paw. Dr. IT, Dewitt Talmage's Sermon OF
the Necessity of Building Solid and Cor
ract - Christian Characters - So-calIeG
piety Too Often Below the Horizontal.
BROOKLYN, September 25.-After the
great congregation had sung the long
meter doxology in the Brooklyn Taber
nacle this morning, DR.. Talmage ex
nounded the sixth chapter of the second
enistle to the Corinthians, setting forth
the Importance of separation from bad
fellowship, and saying that man is nc
better than the company he keeps. Pro-
lessor Henry Eyre Brown played an or
Gan solo, Sonata No. / in D minor by
Guillmant. The subject of the sermon
was "a Straight Up-and-Down Religion,
and the text was Amos vii, v. 8: "And
the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? and I said, A plumb line" Dr.
Talmage said:
The solid masonry of the world has to
me fascination. Walk about some OF
the triumphal arches and the cathedrals,
four or six hundred years old, and see
them stand as erect as when they were
builded, walls of great height for CEN
turtles, not bending quarter of an inch
this way or that. So greatly honored
were the masons who builded these walls
that they were free from taxation and
called free" masons. The trowel gets
most of the credit for these buildings,
and it's clear ringing on stone and brick
has sounded across the ages. But there
is another implement of just as much
importance as the trowel, and my text
recognizes it. Bricklayers, and stone
masons, and carpenters in the building of
walls use an instrument made of cord,
at the end of which lump of lead is
fastened. They drop it over the side of
the wall, and, as the plummet naturally
seeks the centre of gravity in the earth,
the workman discovers where the wall
recedes and where it bulges out, and just
what is the perpendicular. Our text rep
resents God as standing on the wall of
character, which the 1sraelites had built,
and in that way measuring it. "And
the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thou? and said, A plumb line"
What the world wants is straight
up-and-down religion. Much of the So
called piety of the day bends this way
and that to suit the times. 1t is horizon
tai, with a low state of sentiment and
morals. We have all been building a
wall of character, and it is glaringly i'm
perfect and needs reconstruction. How
shall it be brought into the perpendicu-
lar? Only by the divine measurement.
'And the Lord said to me: Amos, what
seest thou? and l said, A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the time is to
make us act by the standard of what
others do. If they play cards we play
cards. If they dance we dance. If they
read certain styles of book we read
them. We throw over the wall of our
character the tangled plumb line of
other lives and reject the infallible test
which Amos saw. The question for me
should not be what you think is right
but what God thinks is right. This per-
petual reference to the behavior of
others, as though it decided anything but
human fallibility, is mistake as wide as
the world. There are ten thousand plumb
lines in use, but only one is true and
exact, and that is the line of Gods
eternal right. There is mighty
attempt being made to reconstruct and
fix up the Ten Commandments. To
many they seem too rigid. The tower of
Pisa leans over about thirteen feet from
the perpendicular, and people go thou
sands of miles to see its graceful inclina-
ton, and by extra braces and various
architectural contrivances it is kept lean
have the ten granite blocks of Sinai set
a little aslant? Why not have the pillar
of truth leaning tower? Why is not
an ellipse as good as square? Why is
not an oblique as good as straight up
and down? My friends, we must have
a standard; shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the
tendency of buyers to depreciate goods.
He saw man beating down an article
lower and lower, and saying it was not
worth the price asked, and when he had
purchased at the lowest point he told
everybody what sharp bargain he had
struck, and how he had outwitted the
merchant. Proverbs, Xxx, IA: ct is
naught, it is naught, saith the buyer;
but when he is gone his way, then he
boasteth." So utterly askew is society in
this matter That you seldom find seller
asking the price that he expects to get.
He puts on higher value than he pro-
poses to receive, knowing that he will
have to drop. And if he wants fifty. he
asks seventy.five. And if he wants two
thousand he asks twenty-five hundred
1T is naught," saith the buyer. "The
fabric is defective; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere better arti-
Gle at smaller price. It is out of fashion
it is damaged it will fade; it will not
wear we'll" After while the merchant,
from overpersuasion or from desire to
dispose OF that particular stock of goods,
says: well, take it at your own price,"
and the purchaser goes home with light
step and calls into his private office his
confidential friends, and chuckles when
ne tells how that for half price he got
the goods. In other words, he lies and
was proud of it. Nothing would make
times as good, and the earning of live
MOOD so easy, as the universal adoption
OF the law Of right. Suspicion strikes
through all gain-making. Men who
sell know not whether they will ever
get the money. Purchasers know not
whether the goods shipped will be ac-
cordlng to the sample. And what, with
the large number of clerks who are